Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dan Ingram (31 ) held off Ronnie Jo nes (1 6) to take third. Jo nes finished fourth. just a bike length behind Ingram. front . The pair's competition took diem half a la p o ut front of th e field , with Cornwell holding on all the way. Last Chance Qualifier •Fel ic ia , Mertens and Howard blasted off the line, chasing the last opportunity for a berth in the main event. Mertens and Howard moved by Felicia into the 1-2 slots' on lap two. From that point the margin ex panded and contracted, but Mertens had it when it counted across the finish line to win a nd transfer to the main event. National Par ker hooked up to lead off the start in the 20-lap final, with Morehead second on "01' Pai nt," a 1979 XR750 frame, cou p led with a fresh Hank Sco tt-prepared powerpla nt . Carr, Ingra m and Jones rounded o ut the top five. On lap two Carr mov ed by More. head for second, and In gram do ve low in turn one to tr y and find hi s way past Morehead. Ingram held it on down th e back-straight for third on lap three. . . ; Parker, Carr and Ingram circulated 1-2-3 on lap four. Morehead and Jones were tight in 5-6, and Shobert wa s holding off Po ovey in 7-8. On lap five Carr tightened up on Park er, leaving Ingram rid ing solo in th ird. . Jones got aro und Moreh ead o n lap six, putting Ingram in Ronnie's sigh ts. On lap seven Carr started to probe Pa rker using a h ig h line. Shob ert a nd. Po ovey were sti ll a t it for six th, a nd th e two were now o n top of Moreh ead. 1The hi gh line wasn 't ' ge tti ng the job done for Carr, so he moved .low 011 lap eigh t and took it to Par ker down th e fro nt strai ght. Seemingly with eyes o n th e back of h is head , Pa rk er co u n tered ever y move to retain th e lead . , _ La p 10 sa w th e battl e of th e twosomes. It was Parker and Carr 12, Ingram an d J ones 3-4, More head and Shobert 5-6, and Poovey a nd Roeder 7-8. On the next circ u i t Mor eh ead, Sh obert, P oov ey a n d Roeder tigh tened up into a freighttrain. On lap 12 Mo reh ead an d Shobert broke free ag ain, and Poovey dro pped Roeder from the lead group . J ones went to work on Ingram on lap 13-14, and got a front wheel undernea th on the back-straight.. It . wasn't enough, th ough, and Ingram held th ird. On lap 15 Carr pushed hard into turn one, getting partially a ro und Parker on th e outside. Chris regrouped on lap 16, th en closed in again on lap s 17-18. On lap 19 Carr was almost even alongside Parker down the front straight, bu t Parker . clos ed the door for th e fina l time. The two h ad put a half lap on Ingram and Jones, who finished 34 a bike length apart. More head and Shobert were a close 5-6, with Poovey on th eir draft in seventh. Roeder , Farris and Estep completed the top I~ Steve Morehead (42) finished fifth. ahead of Bubba Shobert (1 ). Terry Poovey (1 8 ). George Roeder (6 6) and Rodney Farris (92). . "Chris had the pressure on," said Parker while taking a champagne shower. " H e was making me go faster and fas ter , and before you know it, you're off the groove. I want to thank Bill Werner (Parker's tuner) for this one. He had that Harley headed for th e winner's circle t" . " I tri ed h im low abo u t three times going into th e front straight, but Scott figured me o ut and covered the line," said Carr. "Then I got alongside on top down th e Jro nt straight, but he figured th a t out, too. " " My bike . sta rted breaking up about 10 laps from the finish, ". said Ingram . "I didn 't have 'enough to close the gap to Carr, but I held J ones ofL " . " With the restri ctor plates, you have to gear 'em down really low to pull ou t of th e corners, and th en it makes 'em floa t th e valves down th e stra igh ts," exp la ined Jones. "I think I could have passed Danny, but 1 wou ld have had to bump hi m out of th e way to do it. T he way thi ngs are goi ng, th at wou ldn 't have been such a good idea." I Jun iors A light turnout of 20 riders came to Middletown for the Junior program. Time trials gridded riders into two IO-man heats, with th e top six from each hea t headed to the 12-rider main even t: Scott Mohan laid down th e fastest lap at 26.097, and was followed by three o th er riders in the 26-second bracket : Mark Van H a usen at 26.710, Kris Kiser with a 26.83 1, a nd BiIl _ Newkir k at 26.995. Newkirk p ut his H onda into -the lead a t the start of hea t one, but Mohan was immediately pushin g with a high line down the backstraight. Craig Estelled pushed up to the leaders using an inside line in turn four, and got past Mohan for second. Then Mohan displaced both Newkirk and Estelle to lead. Mohan won, with Newkirk taking a close second over Estelle. Kris Kiser had a short-lived lead in hea t two . He jumped his Ro tax into th e lead, but Kevin Atherton had control by turn two. Atherton led th e five-Iap race to the finish, and Kiser took second by a hair - David Reeves used his Ro tax to set up a wheel-to-wheel showdown at the finish line. Mohan , Estell e and Ath erton paced ou t front at the start of the 10-lap fin al , with Reeves, Kiser and Newkirk following. Mohan broke free on lap four, leaving Estelle and Ath ert on in a skirm ish for second. On lap fiv e Estelle ca me ' a fte r Mohan, with th e fro nt three even tua lly clos in g in aga in n ear th e clos ing laps. T he three played off each other 's pace, but neither Estell e nor Ath ert on could work the groove enough to pass. It was Mohan's win over Estelle and Atherton, with Reeves breaking loose from a midrace di ce to take fourth over Kiser and Newkirk. "I've been off for over a year, and I'm fin all y recovered ," said a n elat ed Mohan: " In Sep tember of '86, I went to the Syrac use Mile Pro-Am , and all I ca n rememb er is leavi ng th e' pit ga te. I go t hu rt pretty bad and missed all of '87, but I got my me ntal focu s in order an d here I am, and I've' on ly been back six races. I'm feel ing as fast as ever." Pro-Am 'Pro -Am riders ra n three nine-rider hea ts, wi th the top four from each heat trasn ferr in g to a 12-rider, eigh tlap fin al. Wood-Rotax rider A.J . Sno o p pulled a big wheeli e off the start in heat one, bu t Brian Tillson and Haro ld Hillard grabbed 1-2 on th eir Wo o d -Rotax m ac h ines. T ill so n , muscled in hard to ta ke t he lead in turn four, and he never relinquish ed it. Snoop clo sed in on Hillard for second, and on the fifth and final lap he put a wheel underneath in turn one, then got by on the backstraight. Todd Hurst piloted' his - WoodRo tax out front and stayed there in heat two . Dave Duhaine was an initial third on hi s Wood-Rotax, but he got un der Steven Marth for second, going into turn one on lap three. Mike Klopp was pushing Marth for third, but Marth maintai ned his line to hold the spot. H eat three saw Mike Luddin use an outside front row start, a nd parlay it into th e. lead by lap two . By midrace L u dd i n , Will Bromley, David Wass and . Eri c George were clustered in 1-2-3-4. Luddin and Bromley held for first and second, while George went high above Wass in to turn o ne on lap four to take th ird. Dave Duhaine, T illso n a nd L uddin zipped off th e sta rt in the eightlap Novi ce final, but George got under T odd Hurst for fourth on lap two , and went after the leaders. On lap . thr ee Tillson , Ludd in a n d George all got past Duhaine. Tillson and Luddin broke free on la p four, but by lap seven George was back in the fray. Tillsoon held on to win by a safe margin over Luddin a nd George, despi te cha nging co nd itio ns on the tra ck. " T he groove started to get mor e slippe ry tow ards th e end of th e race ," said T illson . "It was kind of hard to figure o ut. " • Resu lts 20 -LAP NAT'L: 1. Scott Parker (H-D); 2. Chri s Carr (H-D); 3. Dan Ingr am (H-D); 4. Ronnie Jon es (Hon); 5. Steve Mor ehead (H-D); 6. Bubba Shobert (Hon); 7. Terry Poovey (Han); 8. George Roeder (HD); 9. Rodney Farris (Hon); 1D. Don Estep (H-D); 11. W iN Davis (H-D); 12..Jo n Cromwell (H-D); 13. Tim Mert en s (H-D); 14. Brian Atherton (H-D); 15. Scott Stump (H-D). TIME: 8 min .• 35 .854 sees. AM A GRAND NAT'L C'SHIP PT STNDGS: 1. Scott Parker (103 ); 2. Bubba Shobert (95); 3. Chr is Carr (BO); 4 . St eve Morehad (78); 5. Terry Poovey (62); 6. Ronn ie J ones (55); 7. Rodn ey Farris (4 9); 8. J ay Sprin gsteen (44 ); 9. Don Estep (39); 10. Keit h Day (30). to-LAP JR FINAl; t . Scott Mo han (H-D); 2. Craig Estelle (H-D); 3. Kevin At herton (Rtx); 4 . David Reeves (Rtx); 5. Kris Kiser (Rtx); 6. Bill Newkirk (Han); 7 . Paul Crumlin g (Hon); 8 . MarkVan Housen (H-D); 9. Don Martin (H-D); 10. Richrd Foard Jr. (Rtx). TIM E: 4 min .. 25 .760 sees. 8-LAP PRO-AM FINAL: 1. 8 ria n Till son (W-R); 2. Michael Luddin (Rtx); 3. Eric George (H-D); 4 . Dave Duh ain e (W-R); 5. David Wass (Han); 6. M ichael Varnes (Hus); 7. M ichael Klopp (Rtx); 8. Todd Hur st (W-R); 9. W illi am Bro mley (Rtx); 10 . A.J . Snoop (W-R). TIM E: 3 mi n.• 37 .53 2 sees. 7

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